Jean Ichbiah

IRL Name: 
Jean David Ichbiah
Biography: 

Jean David Ichbiah is a French computer scientist who is known as the inventor of the Ada programming language. He had previously designed an experimental system implementation language called LIS (1972–1974), based on Pascal and Simula (in fact, he had been chairman of the Simula User's Group), and was one of the founding members of IFIP WG 2.4 on Systems Implementation Languages. He designed the keyboard layout FITALY which is specifically optimized for stylus or touch-based input, and subsequently started the Textware company, which sells text entry software for PDAs and tablet PCs, as well as text-entry software for medical transcription on PCs.

Facts

He received a Certificate of Distinguished Service from the DoD for his work on Ada.

In 1979, Jean Ichbiah was designated a "chevalier" (knight) of the French Legion of Honor and a "correspondent" of the French Academy of Sciences.

He died at the age of 66 last January 26, 2007.

Pictures: 
References